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Pilot Programme for Whistleblowers

The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (the President of UOKiK) announced on the Office's website on 10 April 2017, confirming thereby its earlier announcement, that he has launched a pilot programme intended to acquire information from so-called whistleblowers.

Information regarding the President of UOKiK's programme

According to the President of UOKiK the programme for whistleblowers aims to increase the detection of anti-competitive agreements which is, one of the most significant task that UOKiK faces today.

As the President of UOKiK indicates, anyone who has become aware of an illegal agreement and in good faith and in public interest provides the Office with the information may become a whistleblower. Therefore, anyone who possesses any information on competition-restricting practices may contact the UOKiK at the telephone number or e-mail address indicated by the Office.

At the same time, the President of UOKiK declares that the Office is undertaking measures aiming at protection of whistleblowers. He also proposes that potential informants would consider disclosing the anonymous information in writing (without any indication of sender's identity), by an intermediate body (e.g. a lawyer) or in person at a meeting during which officials will not aim at revealing the identity of the informant.

Concurrently, the President of UOKiK points out that he is also working on legislative changes designed to ensure that the concept of a whistleblower is incorporated into the provisions of antitrust law on a permanent and complex basis. Similar regulations that exploit a possibility of the anonymous information sharing via the authorities' websites encrypting personal data of the informant, work in the European Commission (from less than a month) as well as in Germany, Slovakia and Hungary.

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